Imagine if you could have someone call one number in your area code and have your work phone, home phone, cell phone and computer ring at the same time, along with the option of not having some phones ring outside of work day hours. Imagine having one voice mail with unlimited storage for all of your phones in one place. Imagine being able to block callers, screen callers, personalize voice mail greetings for different contacts, make and receive free calls and a hundred other features...ALL FOR FREE!
Well you can. With a service called GrandCentral and Gizmo soft phone. GrandCentral is a phone organizing tool owned by Google. It has a ton of cool services that will be hugely popular when let out of beta. Gizmo is an open source service similar to Skype...but with some deals that may give it the edge like the all calls free plan which lets you call any phone cell or landline for free if the person is also a Gizmo user. Gizmo is also usable on over 200 different models of cellular phone, so you can make really cheap roaming/international calls and instant message/voice message your friends on all the major protocols like aim, msn, and yahoo.
Below is a Step by Step guide on how to set up some basic features with GrandCentral and Gizmo including how to make free calls. Right now the only major limitation with this service is it doesn't forward SMS text messages, but they are working on that feature right now.
For more information on GrandCentral features check out http://www.grandcentral.com/home/features
The Gizmo Website is at: http://www.gizmoproject.com/
Stuff you need:
Gizmo: http://www.gizmoproject.com/index.php
Grand Central Account: http://www.grandcentral.com/
Cell phone with gizmo on it (optional)
Download Gizmo, load the software and run it. Make an account for yourself.
Click on the Grand Central invite me request link on grand central. You should get an invite within a week. Or go to http://www.inviteshare.com/ Sign-up.
Once you sign up for GrandCentral You need to activate your account, which means having it call your phone and dialing 2 numbers. Then you can look around at the features of the site. Add phones, contacts, voice messages, etc.
HOW TO RECEIVE FREE CALLS:
Go to https://my.sipphone.com/
Log in using your Gizmo account name and password then Copy down the digits under "My SIPPhone" it should be something like 1-747-###-####
In GrandCentral go to Settings -> add/edit number and mark the type as "gizmo" enter your gizmo number as the number you want to use and give the account a name, then hit "save"
Now...Time to test it out! Have a friend call your GrandCentral number. Notice how your cell phone, home phone and computer (Gizmo) all ring at the same time. To answer a call you press one, or you can listen and see who is calling. To answer phone calls in Gizmo you need to go to the Dial Pad and press one or hit one on the dail pad of your keyboard. When you recieve calls in Gizmo, the phone calls are free...no matter where they are from!
HOW TO MAKE FREE PHONE CALLS:
Go to your Address book in GrandCentral
Choose the contact you wish to call (you did add contacts right?) and click on the "call" button
Your phones and your friend's phone will both ring. If you answer with Gizmo or a landline phone (they recieve free calls) the call will be free for you. If your friend picks up with a land line phone the call will be free for them too!
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